This panel explores how multimodal science fiction and fantasy pedagogies invites student engagement, retention, and career readiness across disciplines. Building on research demonstrating that storytelling supports the retention and transfer of knowledge, the panel argues that speculative and multimodal teaching practices create immersive learning environments that connect imagination to real-world application. Through narrative analysis, creative production, digital storytelling, and multimodal assignments, science fiction and fantasy invite students to critically engage with contemporary issues such as artificial intelligence, ethics, climate futures, technological change, and social justice while developing transferable communication and analytical skills.

Panelists will demonstrate how speculative pedagogies host meaningful intersections between the humanities and STEM fields by encouraging interdisciplinary thinking, ethical reflection, and collaborative problem solving. In doing so, the session advocates for the continued necessity of the humanities as spaces for cultivating critical leadership, creativity, and public engagement in technologically integrated futures. The panel also positions multimodal science fiction and fantasy as uniquely inclusive teaching frameworks that invite diverse student populations into academic inquiry through accessible and culturally resonant forms of storytelling. 

In addition to theoretical and pedagogical discussions, panelists will share practical classroom approaches, multimodal assignments, and teaching resources that attendees can adapt for their own courses. Ultimately, the panel argues that speculative and multimodal pedagogies move students from the imagined to the real by transforming creative engagement into critical thinking and professional practice.

Please submit proposals for the panel with a title, 250-word abstract and a short 50-word bio to Dr. Lainie Pomerleau (lpomerleau@ccga.edu) and Dr. Zita Hüsing zhusing@uttyler.edu by August 15, 2026. SAMLA 2026 takes place November 5-7, 2026 in Atlanta, GA.